Bronze statue of patron lumber baron will oversee his park

October 4, 2009
Marla Miller
Muskegon Chronicle

MUSKEGON — It is folklore that Charles Hackley’s ghost haunts Hackley Public Library.

A park, school and art collection he helped establish also are in the same block.

So it makes sense to place a sculpture of Muskegon’s most prominent founding father in the same vicinity, as if he is keeping watch on the city.

Downtown workers, visitors and students at the new Culinary Institute of Michigan will even get to sit down and chill beside the bronze likeness of the millionaire lumber baron who called Muskegon home until his death in 1905.

The full-body sculpture of Hackley sitting on a park bench, eyeing his park, will be unveiled during a special ceremony. It will be secured on the plaza area in front of the CIM building.

The sculpture is another project of Downtown Muskegon Development Corp.’s Public Art Committee, which also made possible the Richard Hunt “Muskegon, Together Rising” sculpture in the traffic circle.

“Peter Turner really brought it to our attention that there was not a Charles Hackley statue in this community,” said Patricia Johnson, Public Art Committee chairwoman. “Peter deserves a great deal of credit for this.”

IF YOU GO

• What: Charles Hackley sculpture unveiling. • When: 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8. • Where: Corner of Third and Clay, in front of Baker College’s new Culinary Institute of Michigan building. • Program: Music by Muskegon High School Big Reds band members, remarks by Muskegon Mayor Steve Warmington and downtown Public Art Committee members, including retired businessman and the main financial contributor, Peter Turner, and Lakeshore Museum Center Executive Director John McGarry. Refreshments will follow on the CIM plaza.

Turner, also a Public Art Committee member and retired businessman, donated the money for the sculpture — around $70,000. There are several busts of Hackley, but no full statues. Turner made the connection four years ago after visiting Petoskey and seeing a statue of Ignatius Petoskey, for whom that city was named, overlooking the bay.

“I thought the community ought to be reminded of what one man did for this city,” said Turner, who moved to Muskegon in 1972 from Canada. “Hackley in many ways really made Muskegon. He put so much of his money back into the city.”

The sculpture is a long overdue tribute to Hackley’s generosity to Muskegon and his vision for moving it from a lumbering community to an industrialized city. Hackley was influenced by Andrew Carnegie’s philosophy that people of great wealth had an obligation to give back to their communities through philanthropy, Turner said. Carnegie encouraged the wealthy to build institutions that would improve quality of life.

Upon Hackley’s death, he bequested $150,000 to purchase artworks “of the best kind” for a room in the library. When it was decided the proper climate was not available to preserve them, the former Hackley Art Gallery and now Muskegon Museum of Art was built with his bequest money.

“What a vision he had for this city at that time,” Turner said. “He built a truly world-class art gallery in this almost frontier city.”

Two others also made financial contributions: Susan Clink and Toni Reynolds heard about the project and, unsolicited, made donations which covered the cost of the park bench and plaque, said Chris McGuigan, president of Community Foundation for Muskegon County and a Public Art Committee member.

The sculpture was designed to take wear and tear and be approachable, interactive and fun, she said. People are encouraged to sit on the bench beside Hackley and take photographs with him.

“This sculpture will educate us, inspire us, as well as add beautiful representational art to our downtown,” McGuigan said. “Because of the way he is posed, it’s easy to imagine him actually present, like a witness. His ‘presence’ makes me very aware that everything he built still endures today — and makes me hope that the things we are building today also last for hundreds of years.”

John McGarry, also a Public Art Committee member and executive director of Lakeshore Museum Center, researched and selected photos of Hackley for the sculpture. The representation is an older Hackley at the “height of his prowess and philanthropy,” McGarry said.

McGarry also sought out the artist to complete the project. The sculptor is William “Bill” Duffy of Baltimore.

McGarry had a set of reproduction clothing made that Hackley commonly wore for the artist to use while making the clay mold and visited him in Baltimore to see his progress. No one on the committee has yet to see the finished work. The artist is driving it to Muskegon this week, McGarry said.

Lakeshore Museum Center curators will do the annual cleaning and conservation of the statue. They already take care of the ones Hackley paid for in Hackley Park.